Wanted: Ideas That Rise To The Top; Registration Open for Cougar Pitch

Published on September 6, 2013

Registration Now Open for Third Annual Cougar Pitch Competition

Students across the UH campus are invited to submit their best business ideas for Cougar Pitch, which is accepting submissions until Oct. 31.

Good ideas can be hard to come by. Even rarer are the pitches that successfully communicate those ideas.

Students from the C. T. Bauer College of Business and the University of Houston will compete this fall in the third annual Cougar Pitch competition, which requires participants to present their business ideas to a judging panel in the style of two-minute elevator pitches.

Registration for Cougar Pitch is open from Sept. 6 through Oct. 31, with the final round of competition slated for Nov. 21. All UH students can register for a chance to participate in the finals, where $1,000 will be awarded to the best pitch in each category: technology and non-technology. Bauer Clinical Assistant Professor Hesam Panahi is coordinating the event.

“An elevator pitch forces you to distill your idea to only the essentials, and to convey the most critical parts of your business within a short time frame,” Panahi said. “Moving forward, a well-formed elevator pitch can serve as a great start to forming and testing a business model. We also want to encourage students to continue working on their ideas after the competition. The winners will receive access to RED Labs, our co-working space in Melcher Hall, and we hope to work with everyone in connecting them to the right resources to get started on their businesses.”

Through the Cougar Pitch website, participants should take advantage of the resources listed to hone and polish their pitches, he added.

“Consider the $1,000 a small fund to get you started, and very basic initial validation that you might be onto something” Panahi said. “By entering Cougar Pitch and committing the time to craft an elevator pitch about what you’re trying to create, you’re one step closer to your vision of starting a company.”

First place winners in each category will receive $1,000, second place will take home $500 and an audience favorite will win $250. Initial submissions are private and seen only by the screening judges. The finalists in each category present in a public setting.